Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has committed to delivering a balanced budget next year for the first time since the economic crash.

The Government will not base the upcoming budget on claims Ireland’s economy surged by 26.3% last year, despite insisting that the eye-catching rate is “not wrong”.

According to the principal recommendations in the recently published report on civil service accountability and performance, a newly created position of Head of the Civil Service is set to be created by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to act as guardian of the ethos and values of the system.